House-builder Persimmon held a consultation this evening in Lobley Hill Community Centre about their plans for 550 executive houses on land to the south of Whickham Highway. I attended the event with Lib Dem campaigner Kevin McClurey and Cllr Peter Maughan. We fought the battle to keep the area in the greenbelt but Labour used their majority on Gateshead Council in 2015 to push through the change. With the protection against development stripped away, it was only a matter of time before the application for housing was submitted. The planning application is expected by the end of January. The consultation today was part of the build up to the application's submission.
The Charles Church division of Persimmon deals with the expensive end of the house-building market and they are handling this application. Labour's plan for this site was for expensive executive housing and it is noticeable that there was no mention of affordable homes here at the consultation. We hear much from Labour about the need for affordable housing. But that's not what we are going to get here.
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